LLUMC Has Second Patient Data Breach In Two Years

For the second time in as many years, Loma Linda University Medical Center has scrambled to contain a security breach after private patient records ended up in the wrong hands.

During the past two weeks, officials at the hospital learned that an employee improperly took home personal records of roughly 1,336 patients or others who had guaranteed payment for medical services.

“Information such as date of birth, address, medical record number, driver’s license, and in some instances social security number was included in the breach,” according to a statement by hospital spokeswoman Briana Pastorino.

The records have been recovered and the employee fired for violating hospital policy. Hospital officials have also notified the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, California Department of Public Health and the affected patients and guarantors.

Twenty months earlier, in April 2010, a thief stole a laptop computer from the department of surgery at LLUMC, containing personal medical information of roughly 500 patients, according to a report on the watchdog website Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

That computer contained patients’ names, medical record numbers, diagnosis, surgery dates and types of procedures.

Anyone concerned about the loss of personal information stemming from the latest breach is asked to contact the TransUnion fraud hotline at 800-242-5181.